Nancy Rathbun Scott is a writer, editor, marketing strategist, film producer, and entreprenuer whose prolific career has encompassed work for a variety of organizations, both commercial and nonprofit. Nancy has authored five books, written weekly columns for USA Today, produced numerous print and online publications, and regularly pens articles for executive clients. Nancy’s company, Liberty Communications Group (www.libertycommunicationsgroup.com), provides editorial, public relations and marketing consultation. Contact: nancy@nancyscott.com

I’ve been watching Season 6 of “Mad Men.” As fans know (and to boil it down to almost nothing), the show is about the history of advertising (the 50s, 60s, and 70s, so far) as seen though the eyes of copywriters and account pitchmen. The premise that the world can be moved by groundbreaking ad…

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A few weeks ago, a direct marketer asked me about the value of direct mail versus email. We often address “ROI” issues like these in Marketing AdVents, the monthly newsletter of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DC), of which I am editor. The answer is, of course, “Let’s find out.” You’ll hear direct mail…

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Oddly enough, with the digital tsunami drowning us, print has taken on a fresh personality. What some once derided as “junk” is becoming semi-precious. That thought prompted me to consider options for less-often-seen print marketing. Here’s my list. 1. Personalized print products used post-purchase to bolster relationships. We’ve got the usual, of course — gifts,…

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Currently I’ve got about 1,500 followers on my main Twitter account. Once upon a time, I looked with envy at the “big guys” with thousands of followers. In the end, though, I decided to put my energy into following folks with whom I could build a relationship. I follow people I want to learn from —…

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Roger Fidler says it’s real: print is terminal. So who, might you ask, is Roger Fidler? Some call him a new media pioneer and visionary and he definitely has credentials, both then and now. Fidler was the new media technology director at Knight Ridder, once upon a time. Now he’s the program director of Digital…

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Nicole Schappert’s Digital Nirvana post last week made the case for printers adopting social media. According to the InfoTrends study cited by Nicole, most printers have three goals in using social media: • engage with customers • promote their brand • generate leads. In my experience, engaging with current customers is where you should focus….

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An article in the December 21 issue of Information Week  focuses on “ “Jobs in the Clouds.” The article notes that, right now, business has about 1.7 milion “cloud jobs” they can’t fill. That’s the word from a Microsoft-sponsored report based on global intelligence from research IDC. The study projects our economy will produce 7…

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Direct mail can now deliver sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. That’s all five of the human senses. And guess what? So far, mail is the only marketing medium that can do all that. Likely, for the next few years anyway, direct mail will remain — and vastly improve upon — this full sensory capability….

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Silos are complicated. No single silo fits all. On his blog, author Greg Lowe talks identifies four types of silos — regulatory, business unit/hierarchical, interest-focused, and project-focused. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Lowe makes the excellent point that silos often are in place for good reason. And yet, “…decisions get made that are good…

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This is the time of year when everybody throws out predictions. Here are 16 prognostications I picked up across the Internet. As with all predictions, these will be true — more or less, or not at all. Read at your own risk. 1. Who’s gonna be the next marketing gorilla? TV’s control of the marketing…

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Forget social media. What we’re talking about now is “social business.” It’s a term that results from mixing social media with business objectives .. and it’s spreading within large companies. Three components comprise social business: social media, the cloud, and team collaboration. 1. Social Media. Writing in his August 24 article in InformationWeek’s “the barnyard,”…

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Two years ago, social media influencer Jeff Bullas wrote a post called “The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns.” As of this writing, the post has generated 100 comments and 1026 “reactions.” Many of the critiques said — in one way or another — “Jeff, why didn’t you blah blah blah?” I saw something else: a chance…

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On August 20, The Wall Street Journal headline read, ” Groupon Investors Give Up,” noting that backers of Groupon, Inc. were “heading for the exits, joining investors who have lost faith in companies that had been expected to drive a new Internet boom.” And that’s the less frenzied report. Last October, Marketing Japan blog proclaimed Groupon a…

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In 2012, the CMO Council set up the Digital Marketing Performance Institute (DMPI) to study the effectiveness, relevance, value, and cost of online marketing programs. In May, with the help of Acceleration (the report’s sponsor), the new Institutte released Integrate to Accelerate, which the CMO Council described as its “first salvo into this ongoing dialog.” Here are key takeaways…

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1. Saying “No” Is Smart. Greg McKeown writes for the Harvard Business Review. On April 30, he cited “one thing CEOs need to learn from Apple.” Pointing to Steve Jobs approach, McKeown makes the case for culling, paring down, and throwing out. “Jobs cut out profitable business lines at a time when the company appeared it could…

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